Owen Thomas

Red Herring, the once-storied, now marginal tech publisher, was evicted from its Belmont office at 19 Davis Drive at 3:04 p.m. today, a spokesman for the San Mateo County Sheriff's office confirmed to Valleywag. This is a phenomenal comeuppance for publisher Alex Vieux, who has heretofore displayed an amazing ability to dodge creditors and talk his way out of paying bills. We're told that employees left through the back door and gathered in the parking lot, hoping that the sheriff's deputies would not confiscate their laptops, too.

One hopes those laptop's batteries were charged. A source tells us PG&E was also preparing to shut off the Herring's electricity over an unpaid power bill.

In this clip filmed at a recent Red Herring conference Vieux bragged about firing unproductive employees, and scolded entrepreneurs for not doing the same. What would he say about a CEO who doesn't pay rent on his employees' offices?